Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 27, 2021 | sundance | 337 Comments

[Prequel: Hopefully y’all have done your preparatory diligence, and are well situated to assist your family, because everything in the U.S. economic system is now around 30 days from entering the SNAFU phase.  This CDC shift is predictably part of it.]

Last week the narrative was “the winter of death” is coming.  That effort didn’t faze anyone; the White House shifted messaging within days.

The latest public guidance from the Centers for Disease Control [full release here] gives the first impression of the narrative shift being laughable; however, when you go deeper into their motive a righteous sneer disappears quickly.

♦ First, the CDC is now saying the quarantine time for anyone vaccinated or unvaccinated and testing positive for COVID-19 is now changed from ten days to five days.  If you test positive for COVID-19, Omicron or any variant therein, you only need to be quarantined for 5 days.

♦ Secondly, the CDC is now saying anyone who has been vaccinated and “boosted” who tests positive, does not need to quarantine at all.  “Individuals who have received their booster shot do not need to quarantine following an exposure, but should wear a mask for 10 days after the exposure.”

We already understand that everything, e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g, about COVID-19 is driven by politics.  No actions, lockdowns, mandates, rules or restrictions were ever driven by public health – if they were, the rules would not conflict with empirical evidence and outcomes.

Now, accepting what the same medical officials have previously said about the virus infecting the boosted, vaccinated and unvaccinated equally, meaning there’s no benefit to prevent infection from any vaccine or proactive measure, we need to think about the scale of this CDC shift carefully, through the prism of politics.

Look at what is happening right now with airline travel as a result of people doing what the rules tell them to do.  [I’ll skip the people gaming the system for ten days of free pay due to quarantine, and just stick to the honest ones.]  Now, expand the airline example over all other major sectors and industries including healthcare, hotels, leisure, travel and hospitality.

After the “winter of death” statements, Biden met with corporations and people in the supply chain taskforce.  Those conversations were all about the economics of the COVID-19 situation.  The supply chain includes both “goods” and “services.”

♦ We already know from the price increases in raw materials (origination goods), and interim goods, and finished goods, that prices for final products are still going to increase.   The costs in the supply chain are cumulative; the replacement goods for current low inventories will come into the retail world with higher costs than the goods they replace.

In essence, despite current high prices, the prices are about to jump higher.  The only thing that will stop this higher-price outcome is an immediate drop in demand.   There are only two possible outcomes: people paying more, or people not purchasing.

That’s it, those are the only two options.

In outcome one, Biden is in political peril over inflation.  In outcome two, Biden is in political peril due to our entry into a recession.

The price increases are baked into the cake.  Nothing Biden can do can stop more inflation in the next few months.  The people on that supply chain and inventory task force told the White House exactly that.  The inflation rate of finished goods (final goods) is going to remain high, period.

♦ Turning to the service sector. The vaccine mandate has hit employers harder than media will admit.  We are now seeing laid off workers who refused to get vaccinated being asked to come back to their previous jobs.  The reason is simply because those workers were the top performers.

Inside every company there are key people who keep stuff working and operations smooth.  The top 20 percent of workers generate 80 percent of the value.  Losing one of those top performers has a much bigger impact.  Regardless of scale, no employer can afford to lose several of their elite performers.

This CDC shift in quarantine time for infection is significant, because it shows the impact of lost workers (sick time) to the aggregate economy.   The Joe Biden policy response is to shorten the quarantine recommendations, because our economy cannot have millions of people taking ten days off work for a common cold.

Yes, the COVID-19 Omicron variant symptoms are no greater than a common cold, and yes, some people die from a cold or flu.

The CDC guidance changes because the economy cannot support the outcome of the previous guidance.  What does that tell you about the previous guidance?

It was all politics.

Now the politics have shifted.

Again, consider this CDC statement: “Individuals who have received their booster shot do not need to quarantine following an exposure.”  Infected (boosted) people are free to roam about doing whatever they were doing, without any quarantine.  That is a big tell from the medical and scientific community exposing their politics.

“The Omicron variant is spreading quickly and has the potential to impact all facets of our society. CDC’s updated recommendations for isolation and quarantine balance what we know about the spread of the virus and the protection provided by vaccination and booster doses. These updates ensure people can safely continue their daily lives. Prevention is our best option: get vaccinated, get boosted, wear a mask in public indoor settings in areas of substantial and high community transmission, and take a test before you gather.” 

~ CDC Director, Dr. Rochelle Walensky

Last week we were all going to die.  This week, if you’re COVID infected just come on in to work….  Think about it.

WATCH:

What does that tell you about how the people behind Biden view the upcoming vaccination mandate lawsuits.

Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 27, 2021 | sundance | 242 Comments

Yesterday, more than 7,300 airline flights were canceled or delayed {link} due to COVID-19 panic, and more specifically, Omicron variant infections amid the airline industry.  Apparently, airline employees calling out sick, positive tests and quarantines. That’s their story, and they’re sticking to it.

Today, 5,085 delays so far, and another 2,930 flight cancellations [Via FlightAware].

As reported in The Hill:

(Via The Hill) […] Airlines have said they are struggling with staffing issues as many members of their workforce are calling out of work due to contracting the coronavirus. The U.S. has seen a sharp uptick in cases as the highly transmissible omicron variant continues to spread.

More than 7,300 flights in the U.S. were canceled or delayed on Sunday. On Christmas, American Airlines cited “a number of COVID-related sick calls” for the delays, but said its operation would be “running smoothly.”

American Airlines, Delta, SkyWest and United all issued statements to The Hill, citing a spike in COVID-19 cases among their workers as well as the winter weather for the high volume of cancellations. (more)

Oh, it’s gonna get worse, much worse.  We are only just scratching the surface right now.

White House Occupant Joe Biden: “There is no federal solution.”
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg: “What, me worry?”

Posted originally on the Conservative tree house on December 27, 2021 | sundance | 482 Comments

Today is actually a stunning day in the world of COVID transparency and the manipulation of COVID for political benefit.

After the White House tried the Omicron “winter of death” narrative, they suddenly realized what some (including myself) had mentioned earlier.  When you require something, you are by nature of that requirement taking ownership of the outcome.

The Biden administration mandates -writ large- mean the government has to take ownership of the outcome.  Thus, if government tests are required then government is responsible for testing.

The problem is, when any entity takes ownership, they are setting themselves up for accountability and criticism.

White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain should have been prepared for that; but, like all things in Biden’s crazy world of ‘throw it at the wall and see what sticks’ policy making, the White House had no system, plan or intent to take ownership of anything – nor are they going to.

Today, Joe Biden officially tries to take the U.S. government out of the COVID mess by saying “there is no federal solution” to the crisis their COVID-19 response created.   Yes, JOE BIDEN SAID THAT.  Directly and without any pause as to the ramification of what he was saying or reading.

For two years Joe Biden has critiqued, criticized, complained and promised that his administration would handle the spread of COVID-19 and all the downstream consequences.  Today, all of that is summarily trashed -as if it never existed- and the White House proclaims that individual states are now responsible for every outcome on their own.  WATCH (40 seconds):

Why the shift?  Because the crisis they created is about to be very visible, on a local level, in every town.

Obviously, the White House can NOW clearly see the looming crisis they have created by their COVID policies, dictates and mandates.   A genuine shitstorm is unfolding in real time, and I guarantee you CoS Ron Klain (and the crew behind Biden) have been given detailed, specific briefings and information about the scale of the national COVID mess that is about to surface.

It’s not just the deadlines for the vaccination mandates hitting hard and creating an absolute mess with the testing requirements, and it’s not just a shortage of workers this vaccine requirement is creating, and it’s not just the amplified shortage of workers who test positive and must remain quarantined.  It’s actually a much bigger mess within the cumulative economic and social ramifications.

Keep in mind the vast majority of Americans are done with two years of COVID-19 and variant fear mongering.  That’s why the “winter of death” narrative backlash was so strong and so transparently dangerous on a political level to the White House after deployment.  They started backtracking within 72 hours and trying to thread a needle between calm control and the more useful panic/crisis.

The federal government triggered mandatory vaccine or testing requirements.  That process requires COVID tests.   However, now the federal government is trying to back away from the crisis created by the testing demand and throwing the testing responsibility to the states.  The testing mess has only just begun.

Meanwhile, the Omicron variant is nothing more than a cold, yet the federal government has overhyped the Omicron fear and is now dealing with the outcome.   Think about this example from a commonsense perspective: The federal government hyped Omicron to install more mandates, and simultaneously the quarantine time for Omicron positive test result was lowered to 5 days.  These two points conflict with each other.

The COVID mess is going to get worse specifically because Biden is responsible for it, and specifically because everything the Biden team does is based on politics of COVID.   Their supporters are about to discover just what a hot mess this administration has created.  Right now, those administration supporters are only seeing the tip of the iceberg, while the media works earnestly to shout ‘look over here, shiny things, shiny things’.

Inflation data is going to hit hard, and it’s going to hit soon.  Lower price inventories now depleted are going to be replaced with much more expensive stuff coming in that carries the cumulative cost increases of Biden policy.  Combine that with the mounting COVID mess that’s about to come to a head, and you can see the panic in the White House that has now triggered them to try and get distant from it.

Can you hear that sound in the distance?…

Yup, “Let’s Go Brandon” is about to get a boost from even more rapidly dropping Biden supporters.https://www.youtube.com/embed/8LnWzH_ouTE?feature=oembed

2021 Population Changes by State

Final thought…. RIGHT NOW, and for the next few months, is when we need to get really worried about the people behind Joe Biden going to war with some foreign country or entity over some cooked up reason to try and distract from these outlined and looming domestic consequences.

Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 27, 2021 | sundance | 819 Comments

Friends, this stuff baffles me on many levels.   All around the nation various local media outlets are reporting on this massive influx of people getting tested, or trying to get tested, for COVID-19.  Miles and miles of people suddenly lining up for COVID tests everywhere, it’s weird.

The media is pushing the testing aspect hard right now and hitting the Biden administration for not having a federal system in place to facilitate this massive influx of people needing COVID tests.  Without a doubt, that narrative is why Biden told the media today the states have to solve the issue on their own. [More on that later]

In the interim, I asked the question on the Twitter about why people would be lining up for hours to get a COVID test now. What’s the reason?   Most of the responses are generally of the same mindset as the original question with people also wondering why.  I can identify only a few generally valid reasons, and even then, something still doesn’t make sense.

♦ Some people are required to take a test for work, and with the mandates now beginning to kick in, that seems to make sense.  However, does this mean people have to stand in line for hours before every shift?  [feel free to chime in on this one]

♦ Some people are required to take a test to travel to a destination that requires a negative test.  Again, that seems to make sense, I guess.  However, it still seems silly from the perspective of testing is unlikely to stop any infection that can happen at any given moment.

Other than ‘being required’ to take a test for the two reasons above, why would anyone take one?

Why would perfectly healthy people, asymptomatic people, line up to take a COVID test?   Is this a reflection of mass delusion as a result of government and media driven fear?

Seriously, what gives?

This response from the line in Orlando, Florida seems nuts:

“Well, I’m heading out of town to Kentucky to visit some family, and I hear omicron has really picked up and is spreading pretty fast,” Orange County resident Dave Roseford said. “So I wanted to go ahead and make sure I had the best guard against that.” (link)

So ‘Dave’ is not sick, doesn’t feel sick, is going to visit people 500 miles away, and wants to find out if he’s COVID positive?   Because why?…

Then there’s this response, which is even more nuts, but I appreciate the brutal honesty:

“I can answer this because I live in the Lib Death Star known as Brownstone Brooklyn. They are doing this to tell friends and family whether they are ‘safe’ to be around. It’s an elaborate handshake among the Covidians.” (link)

The White House previously attempted to gain some political advantage with the COVID Omicron panic by declaring “a winter of death” awaits the unvaccinated.  It appears to me this administration is now going to reap a massive amount of backlash over a panic they created.   Once again proving the axiom that every statement, policy or recommendation, that Joe Biden advocates is the exact opposite of what should be done.

The White House has ordered 500 million test kits for them to distribute saying, “In cases where infected people show symptoms or not, testing is the only way to find out if they have the virus so they can avoid being out and about and potentially spreading the disease.”  This would imply the only reason to test is to find out if you are infected, yet if you are asymptomatic (not showing symptoms) then why test?

Could it be the hysteria cannot remain in place if there isn’t a new layer of fear of some sort?  As Jordan Schachtel notes: ” COVID cases are the engine of COVID Mania. Take away the testing, and the “crisis” disappears. See: every single nation in the world that doesn’t test widely for COVID. They’re doing just fine with the “plague” issue.” 

Let me ask you, what’s going on around your town? 

Is this madness and ‘Winter of Death‘ hysteria visible around where you live also?

Posted originally on the conservative tree house on December 25, 2021 | Sundance | 538 Comments

Candace Owens likely felt some need to follow up on her interview with President Trump due to overwhelming opinion of Trump’s vaccine position.  Unfortunately, she attempts to reconcile President Trump’s position by casting aspersions toward him [Daily Mail Article].

Mrs. Owens reconciles President Trump’s support for the three COVID-19 vaccines by saying he’s too old to understand the troublesome vaccine information and doesn’t use the internet for his research.   WATCH:

President Trump’s position on the vaccines –as a tool in the arsenal to combat the pandemic– is essentially unremarkable.  Trump supports the vaccines that were developed, under the goal of providing protection for people against the SARS-CoV-2 virus, by the scientific community.  However, President Trump repeatedly insists that no one should be mandated to take the vaccine.

The essential Trump position has consistently been:

‘The American and international scientific and medical establishment have determined that SARS-CoV-2 represents a significant threat to public health.  In response, the United States Center for Disease Control (CDC), the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the U.S. National Institute of Health (NIH); in coordination with the World Health Organization (WHO) and various governments around the globe, have worked with scientists and pharmaceutical companies to develop vaccines to be deployed under emergency authorizations.  Those vaccines are available for the American public to consider and use, if a person is worried about their health risk.’ 

That’s it, that’s the sum total of President Trump’s position.

Trump doesn’t feel people should be pressured, forced, coerced or mandated to take a vaccine.  Nor should anyone be subject to discrimination or division based on their unique medical decision. Vaccination is an individual choice, and President Trump has said, repeatedly, he respects anyone’s decision either way, and the federal government should not be involved.   From my perspective, this is non-controversial.

Additionally, despite the proclamations of many who have even written on these comment sections, this position is not only the same as Florida Governor ¹Ron DeSantis, but also identical.

Again, position encapsulated: “Here’s what the professionals who work for your federal government have come up with, use them as you see beneficial to yourself and your family.”

In addition to the vaccine development approach, in 2020 President Trump authorized the U.S. medical community to work collaboratively to immediately provide therapeutic options and antibody treatments as tools and resources for doctors and infected patients to use in treatment.

Critics of President Trump have argued that the former president should now be taking a strong position in opposition to the vaccines as a result of new information which undermines the original efficacy of them.  The vaccines now require boosters, and the vaccines do not stop the spread of infection, ergo they are useless or potentially worse, might cause harm.

Despite these issues, the position of the United States government has not changed, and all of the previous U.S. medical institutions who advised on the original approach toward vaccination against the pandemic have not reversed their position.   Those are the current decision makers for public health, not Donald Trump.

The public ire directed toward President Trump would be more appropriately targeted toward the professionals in the scientific and medical establishment who are in the current position to make a modification or reversal in their approach.

There are many people using hindsight to criticize President Trump saying: with revelations over the past two years the entire U.S. medical establishment no longer holds credibility.  However, at the time those original pandemic mitigation decisions were made, and President Trump activated a Cornavirus Taskforce led by Vice President Mike Pence, how many American people really understood the political nonsense happening deep inside the CDC, FDA and NIH?

It’s fair to say almost no one knew how corrupt those institutions of U.S. public health were at the time when the first concerns of the COVID virus were raised.   Similarly, few people knew how corrupt the FBI and U.S. intelligence apparatus was in 2016 when those institutions were spying on and targeting candidate Trump.  Most of the identified revelations of historic corruption surface only as a result of investigations after the fact.

Approximately two-thirds of the American population have taken the vaccine shot(s), and a large number of them are currently in the process of getting boosters.   We can only imagine what would happen if the U.S. government was to officially state the vaccinations are now determined to be detrimental in some manner or form.   That’s why it is certain, regardless of the danger or lack thereof from the vaccination itself, the U.S. government will never, ever, reverse course on their claims of vaccine safety, or even value.

Expecting some entity or individual in the United States to be capable of forcing the United States government, or any medical institution within it, to admit they are potentially harming the public – is an exercise in futility.   It will never happen.  Ever.  That Rubicon was crossed well over a year ago.

We are now at the point where the FDA is authorizing, under emergency use processes, just about anything the medical establishment tells them to authorize.  Which, understandably, has resulted in even fewer people participating in anything the FDA, CDC and NIH come up with.

Is the COVID-19 virus, or any iteration of a variant therein, likely no worse than a severe flu strain?  The answer to that has always been, maybe.  When you layer on sunlight showing how political the FDA, CDC & NIH institutions are, the answer shifts to ‘more than likely.’   However, we are operating now with a hindsight that was not available before, and even now data is still kept from the overwhelming majority of the American people, and Big Tech has been instructed to do exactly that.

Candace Owens reconciles President Trump’s position by saying, “he’s old” and “he doesn’t use the internet for his own research.”   To me that is not only curt and ridiculous, that position shows me Mrs. Owens does not understand the importance of the stable mindedness needed for success at the scale of a United States president.

I said at the early phase of the COVID fear and pandemic rising how we were fortunate to have Donald Trump in the White House, because his general disposition is to permit individual states and individual people to make their own decisions.

At a time, when COVID panic was at its apex, Trump could have gone full totalitarian dictator, and few would have flinched.   But he didn’t… instead he urged calm and told the American people to act prudently, but do not allow fear to overcome us.

All of the issues around vaccines are related to scientific and medical community practices.  Neither Donald Trump or Ron DeSantis is a scientist or a doctor, and they can only rely upon the opinions, suggestions and recommendations provided to them by experts in these fields.

It is one thing for you and me to have research-based opinions on vaccines that may or may not align with scientific consensus.   It is another kettle-o-fish entirely for Donald Trump to have an opinion, where his public statements are weighted toward national policy for public health.

I specifically remember when President Trump told us from the White House podium that the media-driven hype over the COVID-19 “was a hoax,” and the industrial media complex, along with both sides of the political spectrum and the total scientific medical community, blasted him for downplaying the SARS-CoV-2 risk.

From where I sit, given the scale of what has taken place, President Trump’s current position is stable and non-controversial.  Essentially, here’s the vaccine tools they say will help, decide for yourself.

Armstrong Economics Blog/Corruption Re-Posted Dec 24, 2021 by Martin Armstrong

The above video shows 83-year-old Rep. Maxine Waters (D) calling for forced vaccinations and mandates. The image below shows her on a recent flight, maskless. The rules are meant to muzzle us — the Great Unwashed. There are countless examples of politicians failing to obey their rules, but pointing out how often it occurs should help people wake up to the reality of the situation.